BA flight voucher refund

Matters123

New poster here looking for some advice please. I had a flight booked with BA in 2020 which was naturally cancelled due to COVID, BA issued me a flight voucher, all good so far. As restrictions lifted I used the vouchers to rebook for April this year. Sadly in November my father was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and given 6 months, as you can imagine all very harrowing at present as we are in the final weeks. I have contacted BA to cancel my flight in April as I will either still be caring for dad or supporting mum with bereavement. Going forward I am not sure I will ever get chance to rebook as I will have my elderly mother to look after. I have called to ask for the vouchers to be refunded as I need the money at present as not working whilst looking after dad. BA have refused a cash refund citing the vouchers are non refundable, they have offered me 10% of the cost as a 'good will gesture'; is this all I can reasonable expect?

Westin

Sorry to hear of your family circumstances.

Was the original travel cancelled because BA cancelled the flight, or a case that you did not wish to or could not go to the destination country?  Just this morning I heard that BA are now back tracking on those early 2020 vouchers which some people reported being pushed into accepting (instead of a cash refund) after BA cancelled the flight. The airline is now reportedly refunding these for cash.  Let me know if you want me to dig out that story report and I'll post a link.  That said - the fact that you used the voucher to book new travel in April 2022 might be viewed by BA as a spent voucher.

Did you buy travel insurance? That might be a route to look into claiming upon.

Matters123

Thank you for your response Westin. Sadly I think this might be the problem in that I cancelled originally at the height of Covid when it was pretty obvious we would not be flying (BA cancelled the flights later on in the week I seem to remember). I'm assuming BA are now applying the terms and conditions of the voucher; i.e. non-refundable.

Sadly I don't have travel insurance, the morale of the story is book your insurance as soon as you book the flights!

Caz3121

Unfortunately it appears you jumped the gun in cancelling and I expect the voucher was more than the fare rules of the ticket would have given you back.
Had you waited for BA to cancel then you would have been entitled to a full refund at that point.
The case referred to re vouchers being refunded to those that received vouchers after BA cancelled the flight where they were entitled to a refund instead. Not those that were issued vouchers when they cancelled at the point a flight was scheduled to still operate (even if it was subsequently cancelled)